INTRODUCTION

 Writing is one of the most indispensable skills that a learner should develop to be able to
express his or her ideas effectively.
 Proficiency in writing is required not only of civilians but also of uniformed personnel
such as police officers who are considered the premier law enforcers in the country. They
write police reports during their day-to-day activity.
 Police report writing is a regular part of an officer’s job. Complete, factual, accurate, and
detailed reports can speed up an investigation while incomplete, opinionated, inaccurate,
distorted, or misleading reports can impede it or even get it dismissed in the court on the
basis of a technicality, regardless of facts.
 Police reports can make the difference between conviction and acquittal.

RATIONALE:

 The ability to write reports effectively is advantageous in any profession, most especially
in the police service because “EVERY POLICE ACTION TAKEN MUST BE
FOLLOWED BY A WRITTEN REPORT.” Hence, all information important to the police
must be reduced in writing.  In many cases, however, there are no set patterns but each police
officer prepares his written reports as he sees it fit.

GENERALITIES:

 In the arm of police organizations together with the handling of departmental routine, the
executives and the supervisors must premise their actions in many instances on information
furnished by efficient reports. Therefore, officers must compose his reports as clear, concise,
thorough, accurate, legible and well-organized. 
 As much as possible, it should be set up in a narrative style, which is, reporting the
incidents in the order of their occurrence, followed by any conclusion. Short sentences and
timely paragraphing afford quicker understanding and officers should attempt to practice this
technique.  It is difficult to find anything more important in police work than GOOD
POLICE REPORTS.

What is a REPORT?

 It is a story of actions performed by men.

 A chronological, step by step, account entirely or almost entirely a factual account of the
incidents that took place in a given event. Or it is the story of actions that were actually
performed by flesh and blood human beings.

What is a POLICE REPORT?

 any written matter prepared by the police involving their interaction with the community.
 It provides a record of incidents requiring police response. This includes criminal
offenses, arrests, lost and found properties, and general information.
 Another concept, “Police Report” is an exact narration of facts which were discovered
during the course of a crime investigation which serves as a permanent record for future
reference.

What is a fact?

 is a statement which can be proven because it is based on any or all of our five physical
senses of sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing

IMPORTANCES and PURPOSES (Soriano, 2005):

1. Serve as records for planning, directing, and organizing duties for police administration
2. Used as legal documents in prosecution
3. Used by local media

POINTS TO CONSIDER IN WRITING REPORTS:

1. Using the best language: concise, clear, organized, thorough, accurate, and adequate
2. Avoiding the errors of form: well-versed in grammar and all its governing rules to avoid
errors in spelling, typographical forms, file number and report format
3. Avoiding errors of substance: the most important aspect; this has something to do with
the exact content of the report with the completeness of the 5W’s and 1H

TYPES OF REPORT WRITERS

1. Who write without thinking

2. Who write and think at the same time
3. Who think first and write afterwards

WHO WILL READ YOUR REPORT?

1. STEPS IN REPORT WRITING
2. PRE-WRITING- This refers to any activity that a writer engages in prior to the actual
writing of the draft. In a writing class, activities under this category include brainstorming or
generating ideas. In public safety report writing, this is represented by the acronym GRO
which stands for Gathering, Recording, and Organizing Facts.

2. GATHERING OF FACTS- Before writing the report, you need to be sure that you have
the facts. By facts, we mean the details of the incident or account as they happened and not
as they are told by one who was not present at the scene of the incident

3. RECORDING AND ORGANIZING- Parallel to gathering of facts is data gathering.

For police report writing, a pre-writing templates on offenses against persons, properties,
vehicular accidents, and complaints or incidents, which may be useful in writing spot reports
or other official reports following the memorandum format.

4. WRITING AND EVALUATING- shall be expounded in separate chapters of this book.

Briefly though, with the filled-out templates, the writing stage will no longer be as laborious
or painstaking as when there is no organized baseline data gathered in the pre-writing stage.

            Evaluating on the other hand, is the stage in the writing process where you take a closer
look at the written work both in content and form. Content Evaluation or editing is checking
whether the report has the qualities of good writing such as accuracy, clarity, conciseness,
objectivity, and completeness.
COMMON TYPES OF REPORT

1. POLICE BLOTTER- This refers to a logbook that contains the daily registry of all
crime incident reports, official summaries of arrest, and other significant events reported in a
police station.
2. SPOT REPORT- A spot report is a report on an incident that took police in each area
within a public safety officer’s jurisdiction. It is submitted within 24 hours from the
occurrence of the incident. The purpose of the report is to immediately inform an immediate
superior, normally the chief of police, about the incident so that the latter can make
appropriate operational decisions or measures, especially since all actions that may arise
from the incident can be construed as command responsibility.
3. INCIDENT REPORT- An incident report is a written account of an event or
occurrence. The purpose of this report is to document the exact details of the occurrence as
basis for further actions of concerned public safety officers.
4. INVESTIGATION REPORT- This refers to a report in such as in criminal
investigations. The arrangement of the parts follows a specific pattern to be easily found and
read. The format is similar to a memorandum format except the text or body should have
the following parts: AUTHORITY, MATTERS INVESTIGATED, FACTS OF THE CASE,
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS. The parts are capitalized
followed by a colon (:) . Paragraphs are numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers such
as 1, 2, 3, and 4, among others.
The investigator signs the report. On top of the letterhead and on the lower fold of he paper, the
word CONFIDENTIAL is typed or stamped.

5. INITIAL INVESTIGATION REPORT- An initial investigation report is a normal

offshoot of a spot report or incident report that requires resolution-be it in the form of a
formal complaint for crimes committed or recommendations for the closure of a particular
case.
6. PROGRESS REPORT- A progress report is a follow up of the initial investigation
report. It covers new findings, statements of additional witnesses, if any, or simply an update
of the ongoing action or investigation of a particular case. In a progress report, it is assumed
that the incident has been reported and the method of operation or “modus operandi” of the
suspect has been determined.
7. FINAL INVESTIGATION REPORT- This refers to the final report on a particular
incident or case where all important angles and details considered in the initial investigation
and progress reports are taken account. Details that can be covered in this type of report may
include the apprehension of the suspect and the final disposition of the case (e.g. filing of
information in court by the Prosecutor). Substantiating documents such as the Initial
Investigation Report, Progress Report, Affidavits of witnesses, photographs, sketches and
other pertinent documents are attached in the report.
8. TRAFFIC ACCIDENT REPORT- This report involve collision between cars, (or other
forms of land transportation), crashes against fixed objects, hit and run cases or non-collision
cases such as accidental burning or fall from high places which may or may not result to
injuries or death of persons involved.
9. SITUATIONAL REPORT (SITREP) refers to a report which is done on a need basis.
It contains the actual situation on a particular incident or incidents which are on public
interest. This is primarily addressed to the commander or chief for him to know the actual
situation before the media and the public is informed. A SITREP may be done every hour,
every 6 hours, or every 8 hours depending on the situation.
10. BEAT INSPECTION REPORT- This report is submitted daily by any duty officer after
his/her routine check on foot.
11. AFTER PATROL REPORT- This refers to a report which is submitted by assigned
sector using official vehicles and is signed by the team leader.
12. AFTER-OPERATION REPORT- After-Operation Report, which may well be
classified under spot report (if reported within 24 hours after the operation,) is an informative
report on common operational activities involving police action such as service of warrant of
arrests or apprehension of suspects and/or fugitives from law.
13. AFTER-ENCOUNTER REPORT- After-Encounter Report is a report on special
missions or combat operations involving lawless elements and subversive terrorists or rebels.
This report also includes salient supporting documents such as sketch of the encounter scene,
list of participating troops, summary of ammunition stock status, recommendation for award
for troop members (for exhibiting superior combat skills and unflinching bravery in the face
of dangers) and the proposed citation. Aside from the reports mentioned, there are still other
types of special reports unique to a particular public safety agency (BFP, BJMP and PNP).

In the police service, for instance, those who are involves in the investigation of sensitive cases
may be required to prepare additional reports such as background investigation, coordination,
intelligence and after-mission reports, among others, which are normally prepared by officers on
specialized missions.

MODULE 3: EVALUATING THE CONTENT AND FORM OF REPORT

Before submitting your written report, you need first to evaluate whether it is acceptable in both
content and form. Content refers to the substance of your report while form refers to the
structure or the way the report ids presented. Thorough evaluation means you take a second or
third look and meticulously go over the entire writing until you can confidently exclaim, " My
reader will appreciate this report."
 
Content-wise, you as a writer should check whether your report contains the essential qualities
of good writing. Remember the acronym ACCCO- which stands for:
Accuracy
 Accuracy refers to the correctness or precision in both information and word choice. To
be accurate means to be free from errors in substance and details. If you mean to write
100 people, don't write 30 or 3,000. Check the name, dates, and details. 
 Accuracy also means using the exact words meant to express your intended meaning.
This means using "specific words” rather than vague ones. For example, if the victim was
"strangled to death", do not write "killed". If a train "rammed" a taxi, do not write
"bumped". 
 Stay on side of precision. Do not leave the reader guessing or wondering what exactly
transpired. 
Clarity
 Reports that are clear are easy to read and understand. Clarity means free from ambiguity.
It means you do not have to read the same paragraph over and over again to understand
its meaning It also means not having to ask, "who did what?" or "what is it again?" with a
corresponding puzzled look plastered on the reader's face. 
Conciseness
 To be concise is to be able to express how much in a few words as possible to be brief but
substantial. Another term for this is compact. Any extraneous details irrelevant to the
event should be excluded to bring the reader be focused on the important details. 
 Also, conciseness can be achieved if a writer makes use of short sentences instead of
long, complicated sentences with unnecessary descriptions. 
Completeness
  A complete report answers all questions that may be possibly asked by the reader - the
5W's and 1H. The WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW.
Objectivity
 The key to objectivity or being fair and impartial in writing reports is to use language that
has a neutral tone.  This means that your report covers all sides of the story and does not
slant toward or favor one side only. To do this, you have to avoid or eliminate opinions,
personal judgement, and emotional overtone in your sentences which will render your
report subjective and partial.
 Although the statements of witnesses, victims, and suspects may not be objective, it is
vital that you as a writer, properly quote or attribute statements to your source/s without
adding your personal judgement conclusions.

A. Block format
1. Senders address/heading
2. Date (Australian or UK format)
3. Recipient or inside address
-Name, position, company name
4. Salutation
-use colon only
5. Body
-opening paragraph, how did you find out the job listing.2 sentence only
-next paragraph, experiences with dates, skill siting
-closing paragraph
6. Complimentary close
7. Signature
B. Indented/semi block
- indented part on the body
C. Modified block